A forgotten John Russell; being letters to a man of business, 1724-1751

Front matter

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Mil

(Pacnell Hnttteraity Iltbrarg

Preface

Among tlie many shortcomings and things forgotten in this book, the need of a preface had also been overlooked, and, being required at the last minute, is written almost under protest, and with the consciousness of there being very little more to say.

John Russell knew well enough in his lifetime what the ' struggle for existence ' meant. Whether he would think it a compliment to be thus dragged out in print to take part in the ' struggle for existence ' of the modern book world, is an open question. Perhaps he might, for his thoughts towards his fellow creatures were of the most friendly and optimistic description, and it may be some expiation of the neglect his descendants have shown him — his career forgotten, the portrait called by his name left frameless and forlorn in the attics — that one of them should have at last taken a little interest in his concerns.

Russell and most of his friends represent the lesser folk who worked for England, as well as for their own bread and butter. It might have been expected that the letters of these ' sea captains,' written to a man of their own standing, would prove coarse and unpleasing, but for the most part they are not so, and the softer side shown in them may surely be as truly a part of their real character as the rougher one with which they are more generally credited. At all events, their downright words leave one with a wholesomer feeling towards that generation than do those of many contemporary courtiers, the Herveys and Chestervi PEEFACE

fields who often disgust one in spite of their studied language and superior importance.

These smaller people stood in the far background of history it is true, but they touched hands with and were not forgotten by the noble spirits who followed them. Our greatest sailor studied their ways, and doubtless himself profited by their mistakes and successes. It happens that the trifling mementos of Russell's small affairs have found a home in company with other relics kept in memory of the hero of a hundred years ago. Among them a wellworn 'Naval Chronology,' which has been of great help in piecing together the histories of these still more distant men, bears the honoured signature of ' Nelson and Bronte.'

Contents

CHAPTER I 1724-1729 Russell's character and situation at Gibraltar — Comes to England — Appointed Consul at Tetuan — Leaves England for Morocco — Embassy to the court at Mequinez — Braithwaite's account of their adventures — Redemption of Christian captives . . 1

Chapter II 1730-1734

Russell returns to England — His family affairs — ^Appointed Clerk

of the Cheque at Woolwich — Duke and Duchess of Richmond

— Letters from Tetuan and Gibraltar — The 'Three Choirs' —

Elections of 1734 30

CHAPTER III 1734 Russell's sailor friends — ' A general delivery ofiBce ' — Cheating the Custom-house — Stepney Feast — Admiral Walton — News from Tetuan — More captives from Barbaiy 52

CHAPTER IV 1735-1738 Our fleet in the Tagus — Captain Philip Vanbrugh — Captain Swale —Protection from debts — 'No search' — ^The Goldsworthys — Letters from the Diamond .75

CHAPTER V

War with Spain — Commodore Brown at Port Royal — Russell

removes to Deptford — Vanbrugh at Plymouth — Impressment

of seamen — Duke of Bedford — News from Leghorn — The Porto

Bello expedition 96

CHAPTER VI 1740

Plymouth gossip — Commotions at home and abroad — Affairs at Leghorn — The London Hospital — News from the West Indies — Dispatch of a second fleet — ^The great storm — More West Indian letters 121 viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

^^^^ PAGE

Chat from Captain Vanbrugh— Letters from Gibraltar and Leghorn — West Indian affairs — Vernon and Wentworth — ^Their failures — Mortality amongst our ships and troops — Admiral Perez at Portsmouth 156

CHAPTER VIII 1742 Resignation of Walpole — News from the Mediterranean — Prizetaking — Jack Russell — His friends and letters — Vernon's recall — Sir Thomas Robinson . 179

CHAPTER IX

1743-1744

Death of Sir Charles Wager— The Goldsworthys and Vanbrughs —

Houghton and Rainham — News from Morocco — ^War with

France — The Toulon engagement— Duke of Bedford appointed

First Lord of the Admiralty 204

CHAPTER X 1745-1748 Congratulations and appeals for Russell's help— Court martials — Mr. EUys — The yachts — Russell a Naval Commissioner — Amateur regiments and 'rummages' — Jack Russell at Gibraltar 235

CHAPTER XI 1749-1750 Russell appointed Consul at Lisbon — Jack and Wager Russell — Mr. Townshend at Madrid — Captain Arbuthnot at Cadiz — London letters — Death of the Duke of Richmond . . . 274

CHAPTER XII 1751-1752

Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales — Russell's commissions — Appointed British Minister at the Court of Portugal — Two marriages — London letters — Death of Russell .... 308

POETEAIT OF JOHN RuSSELL Frontispiece

A FOEGOTTEN JOKN EIJSSELL

In tliat quiet, prosperous quarter of a century, -when Sir Robert Walpole, to quote Thackeray, ' gave Englishmen no conquests, but gave tliem peace, ease and freedom, with, the Three per Cents nearly at par, and wheat at five and twenty shillings a quarter ' ; in the midst of these easy going and one might almost say partially forgotten days, this wholly forgotten John Eussell lived, laboured and amused himself.

The reign of George II was not a stirring or heroic period, and except for the bits of social chatter which have reached us, and the ever-living interest of its literary giants, is possibly rather more slighted than its real importance deserves.

History at such times seems very barren of any but mediocre characters, and with a more or less distinct outline of Marlborough's wars in one's mind, and decided views on the French Eevolution and the American War, the average reader may perhaps feel justified in a mental skipping of the smooth years which lay between.

Therefore it comes almost as a surprise to learn that the men of those days were not only ready and right in thinking their apparently small fry of national events of the highest possible importance, but also found in them quite sufficient excitement to keep their patriotism alive, whilst at the same time having plenty of leisure in which to enjoy themselves. Naval engagements, pigmy as compared with those of later history, aroused the keenest enthusiasm. To them their big men were first-class. "Who now knows the name of Admiral Sir Ctarles "Wager ? Yet for years and years his popularity turned Mm into almost a hero, and his feats of gaUeon-taking were reckoned worthy of a fine fighter.

When the following letters were first taken out of their dusty box, it was not thought likely that much interest could be found in the affairs of a business-man at that date, whose unassuming position might also prove a handicap in bringing him before a critical public.

The words of warm friends support the reputation of "his later years, but none speak of earlier ones ; neither has he himself chosen to leave behind any record of them, until his appearance as a long since grown man in these letters, which chanced to be left in the married home of his younger daughter, neatly tied up in small oak boards and docketed by him with all the method of a thoroughly businesslike person.

Captain Braithwaite's book, published in 1729, tells us of Eussell's Morocco adventures, but of no personal matters. To us he is a man of unknown parentage, small fortune and few relations, but many friends, whose letters, amidst all their varied styles and subjects \ often throw a kindly light over him.

The writers themselves are also for the most part only minor actors in the great play. They deal in no court tales or society gossip, only writing down their adventures, business affairs and little pleasantries in a free and easy and for the most part rather scrappy way. Hence follows, in counterbalance of the greater variety thus obtained, a want of consecutiveness, not felt in the more easily managed volumes, of which the correspondence comes from a few hands only and where the central figure teUs his own tale throughout.

Still, though with little help from his own pen, a very fair view of Russell's character and life may be formed

' Varied also to a marvellous degree in their spelling, most of which it has been thought desirable to modernise.

from those of others, and if no great interest is claimed for him, the hope yet remains that what refers to his own personality and fortunes may not be entirely unwelcome among the scattered topics of which he thus forms the link.

A man to have friends -must show himself friendly, and this one certainly knew both how to give and take a kindness. One cannot fail to recognize the continual readiness to help not only the needy, but the constant and even, importunate worrier. The genial, hospitable soul who rejected no merrymaking, except when duty called, but was then firm in refusal no matter how great a personage courted him. The affectionate husband and father whose family adored him. Probably he was commonplace. Littlenesses and faults no doubt he had; besides the especial weaknesses of that time — when to bribe for a place, drink appalling quantities of wine, and cheat the custom-house, were no sins thought worthy of the name ; but it is also on record that nothing could make him do 'a mean or base thing for any consideration ' ; he was not to be bribed himself, and certainly took his work, pleasures and friendships in an honest, straight ahead, ion camarade fashion, which shows broadly enough in the writings of other equally good fellows.

As to the mystery of Eussell's birth, it is almost tempting enough to use a scrap of fiction and boldly tack him on to some outlying branch of the great family whose name he bore; such, for instance, as the destitute descendants left by William Eussell, of Fordham Abbey, and his wife Elizabeth Cromwell, of whose final fortunes or misfortunes but small account has been preserved ; or suggest cousinship to a Duke, for which indeed many of the letters afford good reason: 'Now must I wish you Joy of your new Eelation Lord Tavistock,' writes one of the Vanbrughs in 1739, and adds mysteriously, ' my opinion is yt all things are ordered for the best ' ; while others speak of ' yr coz Bedford,' and at a later period the Eev. M. Broughton winds up his letter with the elaborate remark, ' Your sons

B 2 have my good wishes, not doubting but if the Honour of Bedford shall pass thro' their loins, their true descent wiU unquestionably appear, from their inheriting those great qualities, so conspicuous for Ages in the Eussell Blood.'

The only proof in the matter left by Eussell himself, is that his seal bears the Bedford crest and arms, a fact which in those days afforded greater evidence of his right to use it than it might do in our own ; together with a tradition handed on by his grandchildren that he ' belonged to the Bedford family.'

All such conjectures, however, seem more suitable in connection with the prosperous man of later years, rather than the forlorn creature who in 1722 tells us that he has 'been struggling this fifteen years past for a living in the World,' and was then ' by my own industry appointed to act as clerk of the cheque at Gibraltar.'

With the various captains then cruising in the Mediterranean Eussell seems to have been on easy terms enough. There are notes to and from Lord Vere Beauclerk, Captain Purvis, and Captain the Hon. George Clinton, while at the same time his pretty sturdy independence of character is shown in a letter to Captain Charles Cotterell, who in later years was thankful for Eussell's help in furthering his own promotion^. This gentleman was the father of Dr. Johnson's friends, the two Miss CottereUs, at whose house, according to Boswell, the first meeting between Johnson and Eeynolds took place.

'Sir,' Eussell writes to him in April, 1724, 'the assurance you gave me of your friendship made me flatter myself of some more kinder parting than we had ; not as I expected anything for the service I did you, besides what I did in relation to your men, which I ran a very great risk in.

^ ' I cannot help thinking (to be postponed) will be cruel, after 38 years' service and never disobeyed orders in my life, and •will be such agony I shall not be able to bear. See, Dear Eussell, if you can help your friend in distress • you shall not have reason to repent, I promise you.' Cotterell to Eussell, Sept. 1744. He was superannuated Eear-Admiral in 1747.

You miglit perhaps believe soraething more than really I ever intended in relation to your amours, but do assure you since you went away, I've neither said anything of them, nor have heard anybody else, tho' my peace suffered much. I've heard since you sailed that you made a jest of your people's stealing the King's stores and burning them, which, had it not been for the friendship you professed, should, as I ought to have done, acquainted the Board with it ; and as for the Steelards, you very well knew it was not in my power to give you them, being the King's, but do believe it was not by your directions they were carried away, which is a very great hindrance to my carrying on his Majesty's service, being obliged to borrow every time I want and to pay a penny a time, which is some days three or four times a day ; so desire you would order they may, be sent back the first ship bound this way, otherwise as being the King's stores must charge you with them. I can't help saying you was the first Captain that, ever since I have been here, let me walk the Deck without asking me to his cabin, let him have who he would aboard, and did not expect so much slight from one who professed so much friendship and one I had served so much here, but all that won't induce me to do an ill natured thing if you'll but send the Steelards, . . .'

To Captain Clinton he writes : ' Enclosed are letters for you from Captain Delgarno, who sailed yesterday morning for Tetuan, to put the Ambassador ashore and believe this Levant wind wiU put him through without touching here again. ... I hope 'ere now your ship, tho' a pretty large one, is well by the Stern. . . .' And to Captain George Purvis in December, 1724: 'This storm has demolished all our Tetuan trading sloops, so that if you could now meet a pretty sloop, or any small vessel cheap, it would I believe be worth your while. Soon after you sailed Thomas Nunn got drank, and went up to the gallery over the church where the organ stood, and laid himself down to sleep and rolled down into the church. Was obliged to send him to the hospital, and enclosed send his discharge from thence. An Algiers cruiser in the storm put in here. , . . The Captain, for the service I did him, has promised me a horse, and if he should be as good as his word, I pray you would when you come down, give him a passage in the main hatchway, ... I hope this voyage has agreed with Madam Purvis.'

That EusseU was fretting to improve his position is evident from his readiness to accept any opening that would take him from Gibraltar.

It was a queer road along which his escape lay.

Having secured the gratitude of the Bashaw of Tetuan, by services done to his ships and officers, he now desired in return, that the Moorish Ambassador Abogly, then on his way to England, should make interest for him in London.

He had already asked the gift of a Barbary horse, of which he wrote to Hudson, the Algerian consul, that the assurance ' of a horse made me acquaint his Grace the Duke of Dorset with it, who has this two years past desired I would endeavour for one for him, and to make some other return to the Dey, I procured a very pretty little silver watch of the newest fashion, with Turkish characters on it ; and since he is murdered I am glad to hear he is succeeded by a man of more generous temper. Hope he'll comply with the Lieutenant's promise ... let me know if I shall send him the watch I intended for his predecessor.'

The difficulty of this matter lay in the fact that the gift of a horse was contrary to Moorish law, and ' what,' says Braithwaite, 'Muley Ishmael would never consent to give the greatest Prince in Europe,' and further speaks of ' the common people not being able to bear a Christian on horseback, believing horses were only designed for Mahometans ; and they have a notion that the Christians have no horses, and this seems to be in some measure confirmed to them, by seeing us endeavour so much at carrying their's out of the country.'

Eussell had to wait for the horse, but it was through the Moors that he got to England. He wrote anxious letters to Admiral Sir Charles Wager ^ and more explicit ones to Abraham Benider, a Tetuan Jew and secretary to the Ambassador, which show the upper and under currents of this small negotiation, as a miniature picture of the means by which most official advancement of that day was conducted. ' If it succeed,' he says, ' I will on the first receipt of it pay your wife twenty pistoles, . . . Dear Abraham, act for me with courage. I leave the whole affair to your management, only with this caution, that my Lord Berkeley * ought in complaisance to be asked first ; if refused, then his Excellency may ask it of His Majesty, where he wiU not be denied.'

To Sir Charles he writes, in November, 1724 : ' His Excellency the Morocco Ambassador is so kind to teU me he has prayed the favour of you to prefer me, which you have been so kind to promise. . . . He likewise teUs me that it is your honour's thoughts, that it would be better for me to be at home, to give my attendance. . . .'

So Eussell came to London, and there joined Abogly, for we find Sir Charles sending him a ticket from Parson's Green in August, 1725, 'for the Ambassador going thro' the King's gates * ; which is the best way to come hither, if he shall do me the honour of a visit at any time. The ways are now repairing, so that few people are suffered to go through. . . . One of the Ambassador's servants had best keep the ticket ; the coachmen generally sell them and say they have lost them.'

Such a man as this genial Admiral was no mean patron

' Admiral Sir Charles Wager was knighted by Queen Anne for his gallant conduct in attacking some rich galleons in the West Indies, one of which he took, and destroyed some others. He was afterwards Commander-in-Chief of the Channel and Mediterranean fleets, Comptroller, Treasurer of the Navy, and First Lord of the Admiralty.

' James, Earl of Berkeley, then Vioe-Admiral of Great Britain and First Lord of the Admiralty.

' Of these old London gates, eight were removed in 1760-1.

to secure. One of the most popular men in England among all classes, he had, by gallantry and sound judgement, raised himself from a somewhat obscure origin and gained the reliance and affection of his country.

'A man who would not fight for a galleon would not' fight for anything,' said stout Sir Charles, who had acted well up to his motto, though from no motives of avarice, for his disinterested conduct in the matter of prize money was well known and appreciated by his seamen.

It was doubtless through his interest that in May, 1726, a warrant appears, in which, ' George, by the grace of God, &c.,' makes known to the Commissioners of the Treasury, ' Our Will and Pleasure is, that they should pay unto Our Trusty and Well-beloved John Eussell, Esq'^, whom we have appointed Our Consul General at Tetuan in the Dominions of the Emperor of Morocco/ the yearly allowance of two hundred and fifty pounds.

Sir Charles expresses his opinion of this allowance from on board the Torhay in the Baltic, where he was then cruising in command of a squadron sent to assist the Danes and Swedes against the Eussians : ' I was glad to find from his Excellency that you succeeded at last, tho' they have snipped off £50 a year, which I think I should have prevented if I had been at home ; and I am afraid you were imposed upon in the fees, for I never heard of a patent that cost so much money. It will require being the better husband. I wish you success in it with all my heart, and it is very like you may hear from me, when I want something from Barbary. I suppose you wiU be gone before this gets to London, but perhaps the Ambassador may send it after you.'

The new consul, however, did not make so early a start as was expected, and the following winter found him still in England. Early in 1727 Gibraltar was besieged by the Spanish troops, under the Count de las Torres, and Lord Portmore, who was Governor, speedily embarked from England, with a reinforcement for its relief, under convoy of a fleet, -witli Sir Ctarles "Wager in command. Witli this fleet tlie Ambassador and Consul Eussell at length started on their journey, the preparations for which included a handsome present for the Emperor, at the total cost of £1,857 13s. 5d. Tea, sugar, fusees, pistols, air-guns, toys, and many watches supplied by Christopher Pinchbeck ^, the celebrated maker of musical clocks, are among the articles mentioned, together with a chariot and other cumbersome baggage, which, it is not surprising to find, caused some trouble in its transport, from the hard weather which had then set in, so that Sir Jacob Acworth^ writes from the Navy Office in December: 'I am now assured that the river is entirely stopt, just above Bugby's Hole ; no vessel can go from "Woolwich, nor any way for the Ambassador to send his baggage to Portsmouth, unless the vessel was at Gravesend or they were to go all the way by land.'

A letter of the same date, from the Duke of Eichmond at Goodwood to Eussell, says : 'I shall stay here a fortnight ; if in that time the Morocco Ambassador goes to Portsmouth, I hope he will continue in his mind of calling here. I hope you will also bear him company, assuring you, you shall be heartily welcome. ... I would have him lie the first night at a house of mine at Godlyman ; then the second day's journey will be an easy one hither.'

On January 13, Sir Charles Wager writes : ' I am sorry the Ambassador is so often disappointed, but hope he is now fixed. ... I have writ to Captain Haddock * to desire he will make him as easy as he can ; he may either have the great cabin, or lie close as he likes best. He wiU please to make use of anything I have on board ; I hope my cook will learn to make Cuskasoo and many other good dishes ; he is a very good cook. I have taken away the "Washer-

• Inventor of the metal named after him. He made an exquisite musical clock for Louis XIV, and a fine organ for the Great MoguL Died 1732.

' Surveyor of the Navy.

' Promoted Admiral in 1734. Sent to command in the MediteiTanean, 1738. Presented by the Italian merchants with a gold cup for the protection he had afforded their trade, 1741. Died 1746.

man, who is the best in the fleet, but I hope others -will be found. . . . You will be a great assistance to Capt. Haddock and I have desired him to be kind to Abraham, if he goes with you, as I suppose he must; you can't well go to Mequinez without him. I hope Sir E. Walpole will give him something, and you should not forget to have money advanced to you for paying your charge to Mequinez, but I think it was intended to give you 200 gs. for that. I fear they don't know the difference between a consul and an ambassador at Mequinez and will expect the same presents, Abraham must let 'em know better. . . . 16th January I mentioned Abraham again to Sir Eo. Walpole, but if he wiU give him nothing I cannot help it, I have said all I can. If I had stayed in Town a little longer, I believe I should have got something for him ; a letter is not quite so well, but I hope he will get it. Let him go to his Levee. . . . My service to the Ambassador, I hope he will be well accommodated on board the Torhay. I think they always like to lie uppermost, to have nobody over their heads, wherefore I have writ to Captain Haddock to desire that he will let him lie in his cabin or mine, as he shall like best, for that reason, tho' the Ward Eoom would be very convenient to have all his people near him. . . •'

Of this date also is the first note from Captain Philip Vanbrugh, an officer who had seen active service under Sir George Byng, and was later on appointed naval commissioner at Plymouth.

' I hope you are better than I, for I still keep cabin. I'm queer and low ; yet the Jolly Admiral hurries away ; will sail on Monday. ... I send all the com, with dust-bread, &c., for antelopes must feed, altho' Tripoli go to Tetuan. If you should go home during our absence, do you intend conveying those creatures ? One male is for Lord Torrington, a female for Lady Charlotte Byng, one male for Lord Berkeley, one for Sir Jn. Jennings, and the other female I do intend for Miss Kempthorne. Shall I send the catlion ? 'Tis for his Grace of Eichmoiid, you know. Kinsey designs to visit you to-morrow, unless he be wich'd like other men. I have now fifty down. I heartily wish a happy downlying and uprising to Mrs. Eussell, with health to both, and am, Dear Sir, yr. most humble serv.

' Ph. Vanbeugh.'

Poor Eussell found no bed of roses awaiting him in Barbary. The Emperor Muley Ishmael, a temperate and religious old tyrant, had lately died, and by way, as was suggested, of making his own reign appear more glorious and his memory the dearer to his people, had chosen Muley Hamet, the most vicious, sottish, and cruel of his sons, to succeed him. This monster now occupied the throne, supported by the powerful faction of the negroes, against the claims of his elder brother Muley Abdelmeleck, who, with an army, had already won over to his cause a large part of the Empire.

Thus civil war raged through the country. Bashaws were attacking each other with furious ardour and such varied success, as made it a difficult matter to judge which grandee could be most safely favoured. Added to this, the systematic habits of piracy carried on by the Emperor's subjects were not unlikely to involve the Emperor's allies in disputes with other European nations, who suffered from Moorish depredations and saw little fun in their savage adversaries taking shelter in English ports and seeking English protection.

These matters are treated of in long pages from the Duke of Newcastle and Sir Charles "Wager, who was carrying on vigorous negotiations from his fleet; but the liveliest tale of Eussell's doings has already been not a few years in print, and can still be read in the History of the Revolutions in Morocco, written by Captain Braithwaite, afterwards Governor of the Gold Coast; a gentleman of adventurous disposition who, having obtained permission to join the consul's party, turned his powers of observation to no small use.

12 A'FOEGOTTEN JOHN ETJSSELL

Escorted in September from Gibraltar to Tetuan, by tbe Admiral of Sallee, Hadge Abdelcader Perez, called by Coxa a ' Spanisli renegado,' wbo bad been sent by the Emperor to conduct Eussell to his court, they were tbere delayed for a time while an express was sent on to the palace at Mequinez.

The Tetuaners were by no means left out of the prevailing excitement. They had already made an exchange of Bashaws, being then under the rule of one Busfira, while their former master, Bashaw Hamet, ' the politest man in the country,' made war upon them from his head quarters at Tangier.

Eussell and his party watched the skirmishing from the housetops, while amusing themselves between whiles with card-parties and other entertainments. One of these took place at the country garden of Hadge Lucas, Chief of the Customs, to which about fifteen English and other Christians were invited.

' The Moors upon these occasions find plenty of everything but Drink,' says Braithwaite, 'but for that the English generally take care of themselves ; for besides chairs, tables, knives, forks, plates, table-linen, &c., we had two or three mules, loaded with wine, brandy, sugar, and utensils for punch. Near the place where we were to dine, we found sitting upon a large carpet a Moorish consort of musick ; some of the Musicians were the same as had been with Abogly, the late Ambassador in England ; to these were added boys, who danced in very odd postures, to as odd musick ; however, they seemed to keep time altogether and accompanied their instruments with their voices ; some beat time with their hands, others stamped with their feet, the whole seemed rather to distract than to divert the ear. Yet both the musicians and our Moorish acquaintance seemed highly delighted with the performance, and as there seemed to be a general good Jiumour and a thorough incKnation among the Moors to please us, we let them see we were not behindhand with them, but showed a thorougli satisfaction in everything they did. "We dined under a large tree, and had great plenty of flesh, fish, and fowl ; some dressed after the English manner and some after the Moorish, with excellent Cuscucu. The Moorish gentlemen, as they do not use knives, forks, or plates, dined by themselves in a little gallery in sight of us.